From my experience with my Roadster and a Mark V I've demoed, the Mark is tighter, crunchier, and a tad brighter than the Rectos. The Roadster can sound very dark, with very nice lows, with slight highs that make my cleans sound a little bell-like. The Mark cleans in channel 1 are very, very nice, but very different. I thought they were voiced a bit brighter (which I admittedly liked), and felt much more immediate to my playing. I feel like the loose and saggy nature of the Roadster, even with the rectification switched out, while nice, is a lot different than the Mark V's faster attack. I don't know if I'd switch though because of how different the gain structures of the two amps are. I've been a Recto guy for years, and that is the sound I've had in my head for a long time. With a Strat HSS, I feel like the Roadsters/Rectos really kill for versatile cleans and huge sounding gain rhythms. The Mark high gain sounds great and is so easy to get a more than serviceable lead tone from, but I'm not sold 100% on their capability of building "big" rhythm sounds. That is where the looser nature of the Rectos is really appealing. I also should say that I felt that the crunch on the Mark Vs was much more vintage sounding, due to the faster attack and tightness of the amp itself. The 10 watt mode is pretty fantastic too. Yet, with the Mark you don't get the versatility of channel options that you have with the Roadster/Road Kings. There are some other options, like channel assignable F/X loops, that really leave me struggling to choose a superior amp. Plus, I haven't spent enough time with the Mark V to make such a claim in the first place. All I can say is that I'm torn, but I definitely enjoyed the Mark a heck of a lot.
Also, I thought that the EQ really was a great feature in helping some of your gain options sound vastly different. I'd be interested in hearing how that sounds in a band situation.
